Informatika, Faculty of Informatics Newsletter

Short Article, September 1996

SDF'96 Project
Promotion of New Educational Delivery Technologies

The priority identified for the Strategic Development Fund (SDF) in 1996 was to further the University's strategic objectives in student-centered learning, and exploration and implementation of flexible delivery methods. An SDF grant of $9,900 was awarded to the Faculty of Informatics for a project entitled "Promotion of New Educational Delivery Technologies". This project aims to demonstrate the viability of new technologies in enhancing teaching and learning practices at tertiary level. New educational delivery tools provide flexible access to a wide variety of information needed in tertiary education by incorporating the notions of "navigation" and "tailored presentation". They also allow students to use teaching support materials on different platforms, different operating systems, and the choice of stand-alone, Internet, or combined mode of operation.

The introduction of powerful information retrieval tools and methods in recent years demonstrated the potential usage of Web technology in various aspects of tertiary teaching and learning. Work on new educational delivery tools and methods has been the focus of teaching activities in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering during the last five years. Examples are the development and effective usage of computer-aided learning modules, mainly in first and second year subjects, and exploring the use of Web technology in a few core and elective subjects in the Department. The SDF's proposal in fact was built upon a research and development project started in early 1994. This work aimed to develop an engineering education working model using what is commonly referred to as "computational hypermedia environment". The main issue thoroughly investigated in this project was the integration of computer simulation programs and other types of media files in a meaningful and coherent environment.

The SDF-96 project targets those staff members who (a) have used or intend to use computer applications in the process of teaching and learning, including computer simulation-based methods, and (b) have entered, or intend to enter into the exciting world of hypermedia for educational purposes. The project delivers a package containing six locally developed hypermedia modules to demonstrate features and capabilities of the Web technology when it is used in tertiary teaching and learning. Two most important attributes of these modules are:

The package will be used for small group presentations to interested Faculty members highlighting the possibilities of the Web technology in different aspects of tertiary teaching and learning processes. The package also will be used for conducting small group workshop type sessions with hands on experience components for those who wish to adapt their teaching to include new educational technologies. This will be supplemented by providing in-house support via setting up and maintaining an archive of widely used and inexpensive public domain and shareware programs that are needed for the development of teaching resource materials.

Modules yet to be developed include:

  1. Web to support the implementation of the "problem-based" and "computer-simulation" oriented teaching approaches;
  2. Web to support the distribution of teaching materials in large class of core subjects;
  3. Web for publishing teaching resources;
  4. Web to support science and engineering laboratory classes,
  5. Web as a presentation tool; and
  6. Web in support of postgraduate and final year (thesis) subjects.

It is expected that three modules will be available by mid 1997. This allows to organise a number of small group presentations and an introductory workshop. The availability of all modules in 1998 will provide a better platform for more small group presentations and workshops. Those staff members willing to experience new computer-based teaching and learning approaches will be kept posted on the availability of new tools and toys during the whole two years of the project development phase.

In the near future, for economic and educational reasons, the number of academic staff involved with the development of computer oriented teaching and learning materials certainly will be much higher than a few enthusiasts. This may lead to a need for a new Faculty position, a multimedia resource person, to provide essential in-house support for the development of teaching resources for users running all different kinds of end-user computing devices, to conduct introductory training sessions for new staff members (if any).

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